What managed IT actually costs — and why nobody will tell you.

Ask five MSPs what managed IT costs and you will get five versions of “it depends,” a discovery call, and a proposal three weeks later. The evasion is strategic: vague pricing lets a provider quote whatever the room will bear.

Here is the straight version.

The honest number

For a 75–500-person, multi-site company with real security requirements, competent managed IT in the United States generally runs $100 to $250 per user per month nationally, and lands in the upper half of that range in high-cost metros like New York, the San Francisco Bay Area, and San Diego. Ironguard’s pricing starts at $150 per user per month, with most multi-site engagements landing between $150 and $200 once drivers are scoped. We publish it because a buyer who cannot get a straight answer about price should wonder what other answers will be crooked.

What a real per-user rate covers

At that level, the monthly rate should include employee support with actual escalation paths, a security baseline (identity, MFA, endpoint protection, email security), Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace administration and governance, device standards and lifecycle management, vendor and licensing management with a renewal calendar, and reporting a CFO can read.

What gets scoped separately, at every honest provider

Dedicated onsite staffing, hardware purchases, travel to field sites, and major projects like buildouts, migrations, and relocations. A provider who claims these are “included” has priced them in somewhere; you are paying either way, just without visibility.

How lowball quotes actually work

A $75-per-user quote is not a bargain. It is a coverage decision you have not been told about: offshore-only support, no security baseline beyond antivirus, “best effort” response, and a change-order machine that bills every real task as a project. The cheapest per-user price is rarely the cheapest year. It is the same math as the cheapest laptop.

Three questions that expose the real price

1. What exactly is in the monthly rate, in writing?
2. What are your three most common out-of-scope charges, and what did they cost your clients last year?
3. What happens to the rate at renewal?

Any provider who answers all three plainly is worth talking to, whatever they charge.